Annual increase in electricity access rate in 2010-2016 in countries where demand for electricity exceeds supply.

Most sub-Saharan African countries experience the same. In rural areas in Rwanda, where over 70% of the population lives, only 18% of the population has access to electricity. Large numbers of households and public buildings in rural communities are not connected to their state-backed power grid. Urban dwellers and medium-sized enterprises linked to the grid still cannot be certain of having electricity all day. The government of Rwanda has set a target to achieve successful electrification by 2024.

The cost of generation and distribution of power is high. Economic and political reasons mean it will take a lifetime for these communities to be considered. The UN Sustainable Development Goal #7, targeting universal energy access for all by 2030, among other international agreements is driving a global consensus on renewable energy in off-grid communities.

In several African countries, renewable energy has been the focus of development strategy and investment. Huge investments and support from the African Development Bank (AfDB), Overseas Private Investment Corporation and World Bank in solar PV and wind energy are yielding results.

This is because the easiest and most affordable way to get electricity to rural communities in Africa is with a decentralized energy source, such as solar PV and wind energy. These communities, which are not connected to the national power grid, will lift the government’s burden of investing in large-scale plants to meet the growing demand for electricity.

Togo, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo are doing well in setting up policies and regulatory frameworks in this sector. In an ambitious plan to achieve universal access to energy across the continent by 2025, the AfDB is mobilizing capital to help realize the continent’s potential to generate at least 160GW by 2025.

While this is laudable, experts say the market penetration of green energy in Africa is low and, up until now, the success of electrification plans focuses on the number of connections made and megawatts installed rather than the end use of that power.

There is, however, an ongoing shift in how electrification success should be measured. In Africa, communities need to have appliances, classrooms, equipment, irrigation systems, and so on, ready and available to be powered by electricity. The energy supplied has to meet a demand that boosts productivity.

There is no need for the expansion of decentralized energy if the end use does not improve lives and meet critical needs. The World Bank is using this same measure to check the progress in access to electricity.

The innovation to accelerate access through decentralized energy is tilting more towards demand management and distribution, using connectivity and data.

With the emergence of blockchain (a protocol that eliminates intermediaries), it is possible to establish an auditable encrypted ledger that can record energy consumption, credit histories (which are relevant when there is a need for access financing), as well as provide energy trading between households; giving consumers more control of their energy requirements and consumption.

In 2017, a non-profit, Energy Web Foundation (EWF), started developing an open source, scalable blockchain platform with the aim of creating a market standard for the energy industry to build upon and run their own blockchain-based solutions.

According to eToro senior market analyst Mati Greenspan, bitcoin is in amidst a parabolic bull cycle and is on track to sustain its strong momentum over the medium to long term.

Since January, within less than six months, the bitcoin price has increased by nearly 100 percent against the U.S. dollar.

With a 98% gain year-to-date, bitcoin has outperformed most assets in 2019
(source: coinmarketcap.com)

Still, despite its large short-term rally, Greenspan noted that the dominant cryptocurrency is only at the start of a bigger cycle that may lead to new highs for the asset.

WHY INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES ARE SO OPTIMISTIC IN BITCOIN

In December 2018, the bitcoin price dropped to its lowest yearly point at $3,150. At the time, even though the industry had demonstrated significant progress in improving the infrastructure supporting the asset class, the sentiment around…

World’s third largest cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) has appreciated up to 31-percent against the US dollar in just two days.

The XRP-to-dollar exchange rate Tuesday established an intraday high towards $0.405, up 25.05% since the market open on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. The pair dropped as much as 5.05-percent ahead of the European session to neutralize its overbought sentiments, finding interim support at $0.384-level.

RIPPLE (XRP) SURGES 25% IN A DAY | SOURCE: TRADINGVIEW.COM, BITSTAMP

The sentiment was the same across the rest of the cryptocurrency index, with almost all the leading cryptocurrency posting surplus intraday gains. Bitcoin (BTC), for instance, extended its rally action to establish a new 2019 peak towards $8,836.19. Ethereum, EOS, and Bitcoin Cash too recorded double-digit percentage gains on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe.

Share your thoughts and views on this interview by commenting below

Facebook, the largest social media giant, made news after it announced that it would launch its own cryptocurrency, Facebook Coin. It was also rumoured that Facebook was looking out for VC firms to invest in their cryptocurrency project, with the targeted sum being “as much as $1 billion.”

Now, according to an official announcement, Facebook is going to lift its ban on cryptocurrency and blockchain related ads on its platform.

The facebook statement read :

“Starting 5 June, we will update our Prohibited Financial Products and Services Policy to no longer allow ads promoting contracts for difference [CFDs], complex financial products that are often associated with predatory behaviour. These products, due to their complexity, often mislead people.”

Facebook had implemented the ban on cryptocurrency ads and promotional campaigns related to blockchains and ICOs back in January 2018. It was believed that the ban was to tackle concerns…

Craig Wright, a man who, as WIRED wrote about back in 2016, either created Bitcoin or very badly wants someone to believe he did.

Now rumours are swirling through the Bitcoin world that Wright himself is poised to publicly claim—and possibly offer some sort of proof—that he really is Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. If he does, he’ll have to convince a highly skeptical cryptography community for whom “proof” is a serious word, and one that requires cryptographic levels of certainty.

The suggestion is that Wright, an Australian cryptographer and security professional, has arranged to perform a demonstration for media in London sometime in the next week that’s intended to convince the world he’s bitcoin’s creator.1 Luckily for any legitimate claimant to the Satoshi throne—and for bitcoiners tired of the long succession of unproven candidates and speculation—there are some clear, almost incontrovertible ways for Satoshi Nakamoto to prove himself. When…